Jury: Lack Of Proper Diagnosis Led To Conn. Woman’s Leg Amputation

TRUMBULL, Conn. (CBSNewYork) — A Trumbull doctor has been ordered to pay $25 million in a lawsuit filed by a woman whose leg was amputated due to alleged malpractice.

Virginia Schneider, 23, sought medical treatment for pain in her left leg back in 2009, when she was 18 years old, WCBS 880’s Fran Schneidau reported.]

A jury found that Dr. Marsel Huribal failed to properly diagnose a blood clot in Schneider’s leg when she came in for treatment. The suit also alleges physicians at Griffin Hospital also failed to diagnose Schneider’s blood clot properly when the pain got worse and she went back in for care. [cbs-clip-player content_id=61111454 size=large station=577

“It was properly diagnosed in the sense that they diagnosed an arterial clot, but the acuteness of it, the seriousness of it, wasn’t diagnosed — primarily because the on-call vascular surgeon, who is a specialist, didn’t diagnose it,” Josh Koskoff, Schneider’s lawyer, said.

Koskoff says the jury has found that the lack of diagnosis in a timely manner led to Schneider’s leg amputation.

“A daily putting on a prosthetic, just to get into the shower is a big production,” Koskoff said. “A lot of pain, a lot of inability to fully enjoy herself, just as her life was really getting started.”